Washington Post Doesn’t Have Access to Data on US Energy Production?
by Dean Baker
Center for Economic and Policy Research
That’s what readers must conclude after reading this Washington Post’s piece on President Biden’s plans to increase corporate taxes and taxes on the rich. At one point, the piece reports the response to these plans from Rep. Steven Scalise (R-La), the second-ranking Republican in the House:
“He tries to act like it’s not going to affect certain people, but when you raise taxes, it hits everybody, especially low-income families. Look at what his energy policies have done. The people hit the hardest are low-income families paying higher gas prices, paying more at the grocery store and more for their household electricity bills all because of bad Biden policies.”
While it then turns back to people discussing the merits of Biden’s proposals for taxing corporations and the rich, it neglects to point out that Biden’s energy policies have resulted in record levels of oil production.
This is a dubious accomplishment for those of us concerned about global warming, but it points out that Scalise’s complaint that Biden’s policies have led to higher gas prices is a lie. The rise in world oil prices, and the resulting increase in gas prices, is primarily due to the robust recovery from the pandemic recession, not Biden’s energy policies.
“but when you raise taxes, it hits everybody, especially low-income families.”
When you cut taxes for the wealthy and for corporations, it hits everybody. For the wealthy, it hits their bank accounts with more money. For low-income families, the elderly and other vulnerable Americans, it hits them when the GOP then insists that the resulting increased deficits be used as an excuse to cut social programs.
Joel
exactly. does it give you a feeling of despair that this obvious point is never understood by congressmen, pundits, or the people?
I like Baker, but I wish he filled out his argument here a little more.
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but here solar is reducing generation costs. We have so much solar during the day they are asking some fields to curtail operations. OTOH, we have rising electric rates (mine bill is not quite double what it used to be) because the global warming/climate change has increased fire danger considerably, and downed electric lines have caused major fires that the Edison company has been responsible for. The Edison company is spending millions to pay for damages caused and with any luck prevent more in the future. That cost gets passed on. Whether customers bear all or part of the cost is something to ask the Utility commission.
Biden is not responsible for climate change or high electric costs any more than any other American. And his release of the Reserve oil both lowered prices and made money in the long run.
The >3% is on top of what Nature releases. What nature releases is absorbed and a percentage of what human’s release is absorbed. Here is some info. to help you understand.
But consider what happens when more CO2 is released from outside of the natural carbon cycle – by burning fossil fuels. Although our output of 29 gigatons of CO2 is tiny compared to the 750 gigatons moving through the carbon cycle each year, it adds up because the land and ocean cannot absorb all of the extra CO2. About 40% of this additional CO2 is absorbed. The rest remains in the atmosphere, and as a consequence, atmospheric CO2 is at its highest level in 15 to 20 million years (Tripati 2009). (A natural change of 100ppm normally takes 5,000 to 20,000 years. The recent increase of 100ppm has taken just 120 years).
Human CO2 emissions upset the natural balance of the carbon cycle. Man-made CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by a third since the pre-industrial era, creating an artificial forcing of global temperatures which is warming the planet. While fossil-fuel derived CO2 is a very small component of the global carbon cycle, the extra CO2 is cumulative because the natural carbon exchange cannot absorb all the additional CO2.
Before the industrial revolution, the CO2 content in the air remained quite steady for thousands of years. Natural CO2 is not static. It is generated by natural processes and absorbed by others.
How do human CO2 emissions compare to natural CO2 emissions?
I would like to hear what policies caused US crude pumping to increase?
The increase to the 13million barrels per day coincided with sanctions on (Ukraine war).Russian energy, that may have insisted that U.S. oil wells pump more, and the dispensing of crude from the national petrol reserve (NPR) increased. Given this why did gas prices soar?
At this time U.S. crude imports declined but not as much as crude supply rose. But when Russian sanction were started US began exporting a lot of gasoline and diesel. If US exports had stay small would we have seen $5 gasoline?
Considering other petroleum supply changes I wish Dean would saymore.
paddy
you answered your question then you forgot it. it sounds to me like you are trying to blame oil prices on Biden. maybe google can help you. i can’t.
Rex
oboy here goes. i have no desire to hurt your feelings but your argument is pure ignorance.
a thousanth of a percent of Cyanide in your blook is enough to kill you. it’s not the size of the number that counts in how things work. some very small things have much bigger effects than some some very much bigger things. and by the way
“If you can’t mathimatically prove how the annual mankind release of just 3% CO2 vs Mother Nature’s 97% can alter or change our weather patterns, than you have no right to promote that mankind is responsible for our current weather disasters.”
it has been proven. it’s only you and a few liars and congressment who can’t understand it.
and yes, water is a greenhouse gas. it’s the reason we have milder temperatures on earth than they have on the moon. but the water cycle is not much affected by people because the mechanisms for removing water from the atmosphere are quite robust. you might have noticed somehing called “rain.”
seriously, if you can’t get an education then you will continue to be made a fool of by the people who don’t give a damn about you as long as they can make money by doing it.